A Place to Belong: Vermont Invests in Elevate’s New Barre Teen Center

This summer, Vermont made a meaningful investment in young people in Barre.

The Vermont Legislature approved $288,935 for Elevate Youth Services to help create a new low-barrier teen center in Barre. The funding became law in June as part of Act 141. The new center will be a place where young people can find food, activities, trusted adults, peer support, prevention and recovery programming, and connections to additional help when they need it. For Elevate, the significance of this investment goes far beyond opening another building. It affirms something we have believed for a long time: Prevention starts with connection.

Sometimes prevention looks surprisingly ordinary

When people hear the words substance-use prevention, they may picture a classroom presentation, a prevention campaign or a clinical program. Those things can matter. But prevention can also begin much earlier and look much simpler. It can look like a teenager having somewhere to go after school. A meal or a snack when there isn’t much food at home. An adult who notices when someone is having a hard day. Friends gathered around a table. A game, an art project or an activity that gives someone a reason to show up. A peer who understands. A conversation that starts casually and eventually becomes, “Actually, I could use some help.”

Young people are more likely to remain connected to school, family and community when they have safe places to spend time, adults they trust and support available before a difficult moment becomes a crisis. That sense of connection and belonging is not something extra we add to prevention work.

It is part of the prevention work.

A strong foundation

The state’s $288,935 investment gives Elevate an incredible foundation for the Barre teen center. It also represents an important recognition of the role community-based spaces can play in supporting young people. A low-barrier center means young people do not have to wait until something has gone terribly wrong before walking through the door. They can come because they are hungry. Because their friends are there. Because they need somewhere to spend the afternoon. Because they want to talk to someone. Or simply because they want a place where they feel welcome.

And when a young person does need more support, the relationships built in those ordinary moments can make it easier to ask for help. That is how connection becomes prevention.

Opening the door is only the beginning

Public investment gives us the opportunity to create the center. But a successful youth center is more than a physical space. It is what happens inside it. It is the food available when someone walks in hungry. It is transportation for a young person who otherwise could not get there. It is comfortable furniture and a space that feels welcoming rather than institutional. It is activities, recreation and creative opportunities that give young people reasons to keep coming back. It is trusted staff and peer supports who build relationships over weeks, months and years. It is flexible assistance when a young person needs something that does not fit neatly into a traditional program budget. And it is the ongoing funding required to make sure the center remains available to young people long after the doors first open.

The state has helped us build the foundation.

Our community can help us build what comes next.

Imagine walking through the door

Imagine you are 15 years old. School was difficult today.Things at home are complicated. You do not necessarily need an appointment. You may not even know what kind of help you need. You just need somewhere to go. You walk into the Barre teen center. Someone knows your name. There is something to eat. Your friends are there. An adult you trust asks how you are doing and waits for the answer. Maybe nothing dramatic happens that afternoon. And that may be exactly the point. Sometimes the most important intervention is the crisis that never has to happen.

Building it together

Over the coming months, Elevate will be sharing much more about the Barre Dteen center, the young people it will serve and the ways community members, businesses, donors and partners can be part of building it.

There will be opportunities to support food, transportation, furnishings, youth activities, programming, flexible assistance and the center’s long-term sustainability.

But there will also be opportunities simply to believe in the idea behind it: That young people deserve places where they are known. That asking for help should not require reaching a breaking point. That trusted relationships matter.

And that communities are stronger when young people have somewhere they belong.

The state helped build the foundation. Together, we can build the kind of place young people want to walk through the door of — and keep coming back to.